BUFFALO, NY. (WDRB) — For 30 minutes, Louisville had this game in hand.
The last 10 minutes nearly took it away.
The Cardinals built a 23-point lead with 12:50 to play in their NCAA Tournament opener, doing all the things this matchup demanded: rebounding, finishing possessions, limiting second chances and keeping South Florida from turning the game into a track meet.
Then, suddenly, they weren’t.
A wave of turnovers against South Florida’s pressure — 22 in all, leading to 24 points — and missed free throws opened the door late, turning a runaway into a scramble. The Bulls chipped away, possession by possession, until the margin was down to six in the final minute and the game felt nothing like it had for most of the night.
In the end, credit Louisville for gathering itself for an escape, an 83-79 victory that sends them to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nine years, their first tournament win since 2017 and first in the career of coach Pat Kelsey.
But man, was it shaky.
Louisville didn’t lose control all at once. It gave it back piece by piece.
For much of the game, the Cardinals played exactly the way they needed to. They didn’t slow the pace — that was never coming — but they handled it. They rebounded. They avoided the kind of live-ball turnovers that fuel South Florida’s offense. They turned possessions into shots, and shots into points, and control into separation.
That’s how the lead grew to 23.
And then, it got loose.
South Florida’s pressure changed everything. Clean possessions turned into rushed ones. Rushed ones turned into turnovers. The rhythm that had carried Louisville through the first 30 minutes disappeared, replaced by the kind of volatility that flips games this time of year.
The numbers told the story. Twenty-two turnovers. Fifty-seven percent from the free-throw line. A 23-point lead reduced to a two-possession game.
The game Louisville had controlled started working against it.
Without Mikel Brown Jr., that mattered even more. These are the moments where a lead guard settles things — organizes a possession, gets the ball where it needs to go, slows the game just enough. Louisville didn’t always have that release valve when the pressure arrived, and for a stretch, it showed.
And still, when it mattered most, Louisville found enough.
Kobe Rodgers came up with a critical defensive rebound in traffic. J’Vonne Hadley stepped to the line and made three of four free throws. And before that, Sananda Fru delivered a powerful dunk that helped halt the momentum just long enough for Louisville to regain its footing.
Not a run. Not a takeover. Just enough.
Isaac McKneely led all scorers with 23 points, knocking down 7 of 10 from three-point range, while Ryan Conwell added 18. Hadley and Fru each finished with 10 points, with Fru adding 10 rebounds to anchor Louisville’s work on the glass.
The win won’t be remembered for style, but it may matter more because of it. Louisville showed how well it can play. It also showed how quickly that can slip in March, and how thin the margin becomes when it does.
Louisville entered as one of the most-picked first-round upsets in ESPN’s national bracket contest, with nearly 40 percent of entries backing South Florida. For a stretch late, it looked like that might play out.
It didn’t.
Louisville didn’t finish this game cleanly. It finished it.
And in March, that’s enough. That's a step forward. Tentative or not.
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